As a Brit who was/is a massive fan of the original i have to congratulate all those involved in the US transition. Sure the first season was a little slow to get going, they were finding their feet and we were adjusting to it but what i love about the US Office is the fact that we get to see a lot more of the peripheral characters and all the various idiosyncrasies that go with them. Something that just wasn't really possible given the confines of shorter British series lengths.

The U.K office must go down as the most successful comedy of all time! Look how many countries have bought the rights to it.Apparently in Chile it has become one of the most popular comedies of the decade and who knows how many other countries have reaped the successes from this classic comedy series. Bottom line is the U.K version is so amazingly put together with subtlety and finesse, it would be bordering on impossible to replicate. Absolute genius!

I actually prefer the UK one over the US, and I live in North America, but I have to admit when I first watched the Office UK It did seem low budget in comparison to the US sitcoms.. but seriously after watching a couple episodes I have to say UK Office is way better.. And Extras was just amazing :].. Ricky gervais is my fav comedian now :]

Anyone else think dawn is fugly?

Yeah don't get me wrong US comedy is some of the greatest the world has ever seen. Because its for quite a large spectrum of people you know..of all IQs. Family Guy for example is one of my favorite US shows because some of the time you actually have to understand it to get the gags.

I know what you mean, but that's not true all the time. I've seen a few episodes of Red Dwarf, and it was some of the most ridiculous stuff I'd ever seen. Seinfeld had a whole lot of subtle humor in it's early seasons, but I wouldn't expect Brits to get some of the references because the show was very New York-centric. Of course, it got very slapstick after a while.I love the US Office, but it's not the standard by which all US comedy should be judged.

I don't know...US comedy is served on a plate which is great sometimes but eventually I start feeling a little stupid. UK comedy Is great but sometimes I find it too awkward and cringing to even stand lol. I would choose UK over American but that could just be my culture.

Spot on

Well said my transatlantic buddy

Why do you feel you need to turn this into a forum for your bullshit views toward us Americans? Some yanks can't understand it, so what, what do you care? I bet you'd have a hell of a time trying to understand the US version if it were based in Mississippi as opposed to Pennsylvania. I'm from New Jersey, and I understand the UK version just fine.France, Germany, Chile, and Quebec have also remade their own versions, does that bug you too? Don't worry, everyone knows the UK version was first.

The "Gervais or Carell" argument is f@#$ing retarded. The two have completely different approaches to their characters. Gervais played David Brent as a grating, narcissistic jack-ass who really believed he was great and that everyone loved him, whereas Carell's Michael Scott is a complete moron with no social skills who is always struggling to convince people to like him because he has no self-esteem. Different, but both great characters played by the only people that could play them right.

The original Office is rather funny. It would be funnier if I did understand the references related to British culture. I don't believe the UK version is too subtle for Americans to understand, as some believe. Its not subtle at all. TV shows don't have to be dumbed down for Americans. The humor is rather similar in both "Offices," I believe. Intelligence shouldn't be an issue. And I'm grateful to Mr. Gervis for helping to recreate "The Office" over here. Thanks for posting the videos.

or the awkwardness of capitalizing words for no apparent reason

The American show is way better>>this UK one is unbelievably boring!!

I'll take this version over the American one any day of the week!

It's not about not wanting to do it anymore. He wanted to just keep it to 2 series'. Fawlty Towers is sometimes seen as the best sitcom ever and only had 2 series'. Gervais has said this in an interview. 1, they want to keep tquality over quantity. 2, we don't have teams of writers, usually only 1 or 2 people write our programs and 3, It's Britain mate, we don't have the funds. I understand what you are saying about not fleshing out the characters out but I'd rather that than them being ruined.

I'm from the UK and I agree that the US one rapes this in the arse.

Uk office ended when it should have. To string it out would make it turn into shite. There's no reason to. Its a story and it ended. Leave the rest to the imagination. I hate the way american sit coms last forever. I have no desire to watch the American version and I am American. There's nothing in america as good as the Office and Extras.

Both versions are funny. There are just funny in a different way

Ricky Gervais didn't feel like doing it anymore, from what I understand. I don't really like how British TV does this, where they're onto something great and then stop before they've had a chance to really flesh out the characters. In the case of The Office, the first few American episodes were just cheap knockoffs, but now it's by far the deeper show just because they've had so much more time to tell us the whole story of what makes the characters tick. Too bad.